


Crosswind

by Charlotte_Lancer



Series: Flight Plan Series [6]
Category: The Grand Tour (TV) RPF, Top Gear (UK) RPF
Genre: Angst, Divorce, Emotions, Established Relationship, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-10-13 07:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20578817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlotte_Lancer/pseuds/Charlotte_Lancer
Summary: It's after midnight when Francie puts her rings in his hand and tells him it's over.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry. I promise that it will get less dark, eventually

Jeremy’s not sure what time it is. He’d left the house in enough of a rush to forget his watch, and the dull glow that the moon casts over the quiet streets isn’t yet enough to judge the hour of the morning. It feels like he’s been walking for hours.

His phone is in his pocket, and it would be easy enough to check the time on it, but pulling it out of his pocket would mean seeing the metal band wrapped around his finger, and right now he’s not sure that he could stand the sight of it.

_ “This has been a long time coming, Jeremy,” she’d said, handing him back the rings he’d given her all those years ago, “and you know it just as well as I do.” The words had stung, but it was what she’d said next that had caused him to walk out, “and don’t pretend you don’t love him more than you love me, anyway. Everyone can see it, and you just better hope that Mindy somehow keeps not noticing. God, that woman must be blind.” Francie had given a disparaging huff, clearly intending to go on further, but Jeremy had turned on the spot, walking out the front door without letting her say another word. _

As he walks, he fidgets with the two jeweled rings in his left hand, wondering where everything had gone wrong. He gives up quickly, when it becomes too apparent that he could come up with any number of actual answers to that question, and pauses in his walk. With a final twist of the rings, he shoves them into his pocket, burying them under the wallet that she had given him for Christmas two years ago.

He waits a few moments more, listening to the sound of a fox barking somewhere in the distance, before swallowing and plunging his right hand into his other pocket.

The phone reads 2:00am. He’s been walking for well over an hour, and as he switches on the phones flashlight, he realizes that he’s at least four miles from his house, and he’s not sure that Francie will even let him back in tonight if he goes back.

He dials Andy, breathing out a sigh of relief when the man picks up on the fourth ring.

“It’s two in the morning, Jeremy,” it’s clear from Andy’s voice that he’s barely awake, “If you’re not already in the hospital, I’m going to put you there myself.”

Jeremy manages half a smile at that, but it’s gone quickly as he says, “Francie’s leaving me.”

“Shit.” Jeremy can hear Andy shuffling around, probably sitting up. It’s followed by the click of a light being switched on. “Where are you now?” Sometimes Jeremy really is amazed by just how well Andy knows him, but tonight he’s more grateful than anything else. He gives Andy an approximate idea of where he is, and Andy promises to be there as quickly as possible.

When the call ends, Jeremy walks over to the half-dead tree that the council has been promising to take down for years, sits against the base of it, puts his head in his hands, and cries.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not quite to the light stuff yet...

He’s still sitting under the tree when Andy pulls up beside him in the most inconspicuous car that he owns. Jeremy spares a moment to appreciate the thought, before standing up to climb into the passenger side of the car.

His voice is still rough as he says, “Thanks, Andy,” but it comes out without breaking, which is more than he’d expected.

Andy looks over at him, concerned, and takes in his appearance; Jeremy’s eyes are red from crying, and, while he’s still wearing his jeans from that day’s filming, he’s missing the tie and the collared shirt, which have been replaced with a well-worn t-shirt. There’s a leaf stuck in Jeremy’s hair, and Andy reaches over to remove it.

Once Jeremy has buckled himself into the seat, Andy speaks.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Jeremy shook his head. “Not yet. It’s just…”  _ It’s just she wasn’t wrong _ , his traitorous brain shoved at him before he could stop it, and he sighed, bringing his hand up to rub against his forehead. “Fuck. She really is leaving this time.”

They’d had their fights in the past, of course, but they’d never resulted in Francie taking off her rings, and giving him that blank look as she listed things off in the same way she might complain about the weather. She hadn’t even yelled, and somehow that made it seem all the more real this time. All the more  _ final _ .

Jeremy leans his head back against the seat, and Andy starts the car without responding. The ride to Jeremy’s apartment is quiet, and when they get there Andy pulls out his own key before Jeremy has a chance to reach into his wallet for his own.

The inside of the apartment is dark. Jeremy hadn’t bothered to leave a light on when he’d left in the morning, anticipating instead that he’d be spending the night at his home- well, at his house, at any rate. Jeremy flicks on the switch, and as the yellow light washes over the small living room, it looks a lot more like a home than his house has for a long time. The house is beautiful, always kept up neatly with never a shoe out of order, but somewhere along the line- he can’t pinpoint an exact time, except that it’s after the kids had gone off to school- it had stopped feeling like a place to live, and more like a magazine spread set up in 3D. The apartment, though… he looks it over, and spots more signs of life than his house has seen in the last year. There’s a mug on the counter, probably still half-full of coffee, and a towel laying half-into the sink. One of Richard’s jackets is draped over the back of a kitchen stool, inside out from how he’d shrugged it off that morning, laughing at a joke that Jeremy had made.

That morning seems farther away than it has any right to, and Jeremy moves his eyes to the living room before he can dwell on what had come between then and now. The blanket on the back of the couch is rumpled from there brief wrestling match over the remote, and at a glance Jeremy still isn’t sure where the thing had ended up. He smiles at the memory of the face Richard had made as he finally managed to sneak the remote from Jeremy’s hand, and even more at the surprised squeak that Richard had made as Jeremy had playfully tackled him to the cushions.

It isn’t until Andy lays a hand on his shoulder that Jeremy remembers that he isn’t alone in the apartment, and he turns to face his friend.

“Are you going to be alright here alone tonight?”

“Yeah,” Jeremy nods, feeling far calmer than he had even an hour before, “I think I am.”

Andy smiles at him gently, and gives his shoulder a small squeeze before dropping his hand back down to his side.

He thanks Andy again, locks the door after he leaves, and then glances down to check the time. 

_ Right _ , he thinks, _ still not wearing a watch. _

There’s a few in the bedside drawer, and he walks into the bedroom to get one. There’s a framed photo of him and Francie sitting atop the table, and he turns it to face the corner before opening the drawer.

He pulls out a watch at random, and fastens it to his wrist. Before he closes the watch box, he drops in Francie’s rings, closing his eyes at the soft sound they make. It’s nearly 4:00am now, and soon the sunlight will begin to filter through the blinds that cover the window, but for now, he sits at the edge of the bed, and stares out into the dimly-lit night, watching the streetlights and 24-hour shop signs glow in the distance. He lets himself stare for a minute or so, and then lays down on the bed, pulling the covers over him. After a moment, he slides the drawer back open, slips off his own ring, and places it in the box with the other two.

He falls asleep quickly after that, and doesn’t wake until the sun is nearly at its peak.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple POV switches in this one. Sorry.

It’s not actually the sun that wakes him up in the end, however, but his phone vibrating in his pocket. He fumbles around to get it out, but by the time he has it the call has already stopped ringing.

He looks at the screen, taps at the tiny notification bar on the top of the screen, and sees that the missed call is from James.

A moment later, a text appears. ‘_ Tried to stop by to drop off that DVD you wanted to borrow, but Francie said you’d gone out. But the car you have this week was sitting right there in the drive, and when I asked when you’d be back she just kept dodging the question, and she wouldn’t let me leave the DVD for you. Is everything alright?’ _

Jeremy stops himself from growling, but only just. _ Why couldn’t she just take the DVD and leave it at that? _This isn’t a conversation he wants to have with James over text- or at all, really, but it has to be done somehow- so he pokes at the button to call James, and waits for it to ring.

“Hello,” James is voice is too bright, far too cheery for Jeremy right now, and Jeremy can already feel a headache forming in anticipation of this conversation.

“Hey, James,” he says, keeping his voice as neutral as he can, “I’m at the apartment.”

“Did you take a cab?” James sounds surprised, and a bit confused, “Why are you even there, anyway?”

“Andy gave me a ride. It’s a long story.” He pauses and takes a deep breath. “But, if you’ve got the time, do you think you could come over? I’d rather have this conversation in person.”

.........

It's late in the afternoon, and Richard and Mindy are enjoying a slow day laying in bed. The girls had been picked up by Mindy's parents bright and early that morning for a day out at the zoo, and once they had left he and Mindy had taken one look at each other, and hurried off back to bed.

They’d had sex, twice, but now they were just enjoying a day without responsibilities. Richard was reading a book, idly considering whether he could convince any of the pizza places to deliver this far out, and Mindy was laying against his chest, eyes closed, listening to her iPod.

He was just about half-asleep himself when Mindy’s phone buzzed on the bedside table, and she stirred to reach for it. He set the book down on the bed, and looked over to her.

“Is everything alright at the zoo?” Hopefully neither of the kids had come down with anything; they’d been looking forward to the trip for weeks.

“The text’s from Francie, actually.” She squinted at the screen, eyes flicking over the words several times. “Huh. That’s odd. Has, um, has Jeremy mentioned anything about Francie lately?”

“Not really, why?”

She turned the screen to show him the text. _ ‘I wasn’t going to say anything, but I think that you need to know; Jeremy is in love with your husband. I’m sorry.’ _

Richard read the message twice, trying to figure out some context where it would make sense. When he couldn’t find one, he turned his head towards Mindy, and asked,

“Didn’t we know this already? I distinctly remember this being established several months ago, during what was possibly the most awkward discussion of my life.” They’d had Jeremy and Francie over for dinner so that ground rules could be laid, boundaries could be set, and all of the other negotiations necessary to navigate their broadened relationship could be had. Frankly, Richard couldn’t see how Francie’s text was anything other than old news.

“Not just your life, love.” Mindy looked back at the phone, and scrolled up through her earlier texts, frowning. “This definitely isn’t normal. I think I should call her.”

“Good idea,” He leaned over to press a quick kiss to her lips, “I’ll put on a pot of tea.”

Richard slipped on a pair of slippers as he stood from the bed, then headed for the kitchen.

...........

James and Jeremy were sitting at the apartment's tiny kitchen table, mugs of tea and coffee set in front of them.

“So that’s it, then?” James asked, looking down at the tea that had long since gone cold, “you’re not even going to try to get her back?”

Jeremy shook his head, and left it facing out the window as he said, “We’d been drifting apart for years. She threatens to leave every time we go on a long shoot on location, or that the tabloids find some new way to rake me over the coals. Even if I convince her to stay, how long will it be before she finds the next final straw and decides to leave again?” He runs a hand through his hand, breathing out heavily. “It would just be delaying the inevitable.”

There’s a heavy silence for a long moment, before James pushed forward his tea and says, “I think this calls for something a bit stronger than tea or coffee.”

Jeremy couldn’t agree more, and soon enough they’ve ordered a selection of drinks to be delivered, and start well into Jeremy’s supply of beer as they wait for the arrival of more.

Once the delivery driver is paid and gone, neither James nor Jeremy says anything more for a long while.

.............

The tea is nearly ready, and Richard is just reaching to get down some cups when Mindy walks into the kitchen. She’s holding her phone in her hand, and there’s shock clear on her face, as well as horror. He stops what he’s doing and goes over to hold her.

“What’s happened?” he asks, rubbing his hand in circles on her back.

“She’s leaving him,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper, as if it will somehow be less true if they don’t acknowledge it out loud.

Richard takes in a sharp breath, and pulls Mindy closer to him. She buries her head against his shoulder, nose pressing into his neck, and he tilts his head down to rest his cheek against her hair. They stand together for a long time, neither quite willing to let go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it should start to get a bit lighter after this chapter...


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mostly just a list of what was going to occur in the rest of this fic. I'm sick of writing this one, and want to get back to the fluffy happy stuff, so I've just summarized what is important to know for what comes next in the series.
> 
> Sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI, I'm also taking prompts right now. I'm planning to write a fic every day from ~ Thanksgiving to Xmas, so send a message or comment what you want written. And please send as many prompts as you like.

Eventually, long after the sun has set again and James has left, Jeremy forces himself to call Richard. He expects it to be an awkward call, and it’s certainly not one he wants to make, but he can’t keep this from him forever, and Jeremy knows it’s definitely not the kind of thing he should spring on Richard at work.

He’s still slightly buzzed as he grabs the phone, but nowhere near drunk. He can’t quite decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Richard picks up on the second ring. “Hey, Jeremy. How are you?” Richard is clearly trying to sound casual, but he’s never been a very good liar. Jeremy narrows his eyes; he knows neither James or Andy would have said anything to Richard.

“She told you?” he asks, torn between being angry at her presumption and being relieved that he doesn’t have to find the words to say to Richard.

“Ah, no, she told Mindy, sort of by text. Er, are you alright?”

“Fine, all things considered.” Jeremy pauses, remembering that all of his cars are elsewhere, “But, are you driving in to work on Monday? Andy dropped me off at the flat yesterday and my car is still at the house.”

“I’ll pick you up.”

………………………………………………………………….

  * Richard drives Jeremy to the studio on Monday, then to the house after so Jeremy can get his car and pick up more stuff to go back to the flat.
  * Jeremy and Francie get a divorce as, same agreements as irl.
  * Jeremy acts slightly awkward around Richard and Mindy for a few weeks, before they essentially polite him into acting normal again.
  * The press does not find out about anything out of the ordinary with the divorce.


End file.
